


Not Alone

by redredribbons



Category: Alien vs Predator (2004)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-01
Updated: 2012-03-01
Packaged: 2017-10-31 22:45:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/349166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redredribbons/pseuds/redredribbons
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AvP AU in which Scar has survived. Vaguely a prequel to "Dusk Til Dawn". Lex struggles to cope after Antarctica, but finds comfort and company in the most unlikely place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

The passing of a full year was a strange realization.

 

It came to Lex not with the counting of days or weeks or the names of months, but with the moon. This day was marked on her calendar with a little white circle, and it was the twelfth one since that fateful hunter’s moon over Antarctica. Lex sighed at the calendar’s  generically pleasing landscape photo and turned away, focusing instead on the cooling autumn sky outside her bedroom window. The calendar’s boxes and numbers were meaningless. Turning the pages did nothing to chase off the serpents she still saw grinning at her from the shadows. She wondered distantly what time had meant to her before, as if she were reminiscing about someone who had died. That calendar would have been full of scribbles and crossing-outs. She had been a busy woman once. Reservations for her services as a mountaineering guide and instructor were booked months in advance. Her environmental research had earned her accolades and ever-increasing responsibility. 

 

Now those calendar pages were as blank and white as the full moons Lex both dreaded and longed for. She hadn’t been able to stomach leading another expedition after her rescue from Antarctica. Every time she looked into the faces of her clients she saw a serpent hissing over their shoulder and she was powerless to save them all over again. Her head had swam and she had reflexively clapped her hands over her ears to drown out the screams echoing in her memory. Clients canceled. Word got around that something had happened to Alexa Woods, that she was unwell. Clients stopped contacting her altogether.

 

The hefty check Lex received from Weyland-Yutani had made the loss of business more a blessing than a curse. She could simply remain here, in this cabin in Montana, and exist. The remoteness of the location suited her. She had always preferred open sky and unmarred wilderness to the racket of urban life. There was no comfort to gain from human company, either. Her occasional attempts at socializing left her feeling drained and even more detached than before. It was exhausting to lie so habitually about where she had been, what she did, how she was feeling. Everything. Her forced smile was a painful gash that never reached her eyes. She’d tried self-help books and researched coping strategies. Ultimately they all pointed in the same impossible direction: _get help. Talk to someone_. 

 

And Lex couldn’t. Whatever she felt now would be nothing compared to a life of interminable boredom and numbness confined in an institution. What else would a doctor do with a tale like hers?  She’d be branded a lunatic. There was no one in the world she could talk to. 

 

No one in the world. The weight of that loneliness closed in around Lex and she let herself slump onto her bed. She breathed deeply and focused on the details of her room: the wood grain in the walls, the texture of the blankets beneath her, the shape of the rafters above her. She was here. This, right now, was reality. One hand came to rest on her cheek, a fingertip tracing the two smooth marks where her unlikely partner in survival had marked her. Scar: a nightmare turned savior. 

 

Abstractly, Lex knew that she had been afraid of Scar at some point. When he’d first shown himself, when she was desperately alone in the pyramid’s lightless corridors, she cowered before him. It was only later that she realized how effortlessly he could have killed her, and had chosen not to. And how effortlessly she could have left him to die to guarantee her own safety, but had chosen not to. It had never occurred to her to leave him behind. When the serpents attacked him at the base of the tunnel her fear had evaporated, sizzled away by rage. She refused to be alone again. The thought of losing him had, in the few short hours they’d spent surviving and fighting together, become unbearable. Impossibly, he’d shined a light into the worst depths of her fear and made her smile. That moment, when he’d played the prank on her with the dead serpent’s maw, was when she remembered that she could feel something other than numb horror. 

 

Safely on the surface afterward, overwhelmed and exhausted, Lex had been incapable of more than looking at him, watching the snow-reflected moonlight play over the hard-cut lines of his body. When he’d unfastened his mask to reveal his profoundly alien face, she didn’t flinch. She vividly remembered the sight of his deep-set yellow eyes and the first absurd thought in her mind: _forward-facing eyes, binocular vision. Like a human, or any predator species._ When he reached for her, she didn’t shy away. In the frigid antarctic air his hand had felt feverishly hot on the side of her face. His skin, thick and leathery. Talons resting in her hair. He’d lifted one of the serpents’ severed fingers near her cheek and tilted his massive head in a gesture so familiarly, almost innocently, inquisitive that she had smiled again. She understood what he was asking, and the gravity of it. She knew that this experience had been a ritual of deep importance for him. He had marked his own mask and face accordingly. He offered her the same rite. She accepted without hesitation, moved by the depth of his respect for her. He’d left her shortly after. His own people had come for him. The spear had been his parting gift. He’d lowered his head, purring, and pressed the weapon into her hand. He and the rest of his kind vanished in a roar of engines and blinding light. 

 

Lex hadn’t seen him again. She didn’t think she would and forced herself not to hope for it. The fact that she hoped for it at all surprised her at first. Scar was far from innocent in the deaths of her expedition teammates, after all. Though he was unquestionably sentient and intelligent, he wasn’t human. Lex slowly massaged her temples and gave a wry smile at the realization that she currently shared deeper understanding with an alien she knew next to nothing about than with any human being. She tried to discourage her interest by recalling Sebastian’s words: that Scar’s kind viewed humans as nothing more than cattle. That approach backfired. During her rare trips into town for supplies, Lex had overheard conversations between ranchers. If there was one thing they did not take kindly to, it was wolves among their herds. This idea became a twisted source of comfort to Lex. It helped her face the dark every night; looking at the stars and knowing that somewhere among them, Scar existed. 

 

Impulsively she groped under her pillow until her hand closed around a familiar metal cylinder. As she done countless times before, she studied the spear, retracted and harmless-looking in its current state, turning the feather-light steel over in her hand before tightening her grip. Aside from the mark on her cheek, this was Lex’s only tangible reminder of her ordeal, and of Scar. It had been his weapon, but it was she who raised it and slain one of the serpents. She hadn’t felt the least bit brave at the time, but Scar had obviously considered her so. She supposed his esteem was contagious. Even now, holding the spear gave her a feeling of centeredness and reminded her that she was alive and that she was in control. When she woke in the middle of the night screaming, it was the first thing she reached for. Lex brushed her lips over the smooth, cool metal. _No one in the world_ , she thought, her loneliness falling away like a shroud, _But he doesn’t have to be._


	2. Chapter 2

The outdoors had always been a source of comfort for Lex. Freed from the artificial distractions of man-made life, she felt hyper-aware and more in tune with the world. Her thoughts flowed more easily. Stress fell away. Long walks were as much a part of Lex’s daily routine as eating and sleeping, and since Antarctica she’d cherished them even more. The green coniferous forest surrounding her cabin was a stark contrast to the icy wasteland of her nightmares; it was the perfect place to lose herself and be surrounded, for once, by life. Since her arrival here, Lex had spent a great deal of time wandering the woods: blazing her own trails, acquainting herself with landmarks, finding hidden meadows, naming the craggy granite boulders. Though she carried no map, she was intimately familiar with the land by now and followed her own internal compass. 

 

This afternoon Lex had planned to venture a bit further than she had before. There was a clearing on the other side of the hill that marked the extent of her exploration.  Nearing the crest of the hill, she lifted her face to the autumn air and shivered at the first nips of winter. She still dreaded that time of year. The cold and darkness and moonlight on snow were too horrifyingly familiar. She gave an involuntary glance back over her shoulder in the direction of her cabin. Perhaps she would turn back early. Movement darted in Lex’s peripheral vision and she froze, her heart pounding frenetically as her permanently over-sensitized fight-or-flight response took control. But when she turned her head, her tension melted away and she laughed quietly at herself. A small group of deer had emerged from the trees nearby. Lex slowly crouched down and observed them, momentarily envying the simplicity of their existence. They wandered, satisfied enough in their lot, mostly unaware of the universe until driven to frantic bursts of desperation when attacked by coyotes or a mountain lion. The metaphor was suddenly too apt and she abandoned that line of thought. Moving carefully so as not to disturb the deer, she settled onto the ground and pulled a water bottle from her day pack, content to observe to fragile-looking animals. 

 

 After awhile Lex noticed a change in the deers’ posture. They stiffened, their wide soft ears perking and twitching. Their heads shot up from the grass and they froze, eyes glittering with fear. Something else was here. Lex’s own body mirrored the animals’ response. Pack and water bottle forgotten, she poised into a crouch, ready to spring and flee at a moment’s notice. The tension dragged on interminably. Neither Lex nor the deer moved. Then the air stirred almost imperceptibly; there was no sound and Lex would have missed it altogether had the hairs on the back of her neck not suddenly stood on end. 

 

The tension abruptly shattered when one of the deer went flying back several yards under the tremendous force of a fatal impact. Its delicate body had been skewered clean through by a spear. Lex was instantly on her feet, heart pounding. _Run!_ she told herself, _Run, damn you!_ But her legs, suddenly water, refused to obey. 

 

“Run!” Lex wheezed out loud to herself, wondering half-mad if she would wake up now, sweating in horror. The other deer had bolted back into the trees, their instincts keener than hers. A soft, clicking purr filled the air. It cut through her rising panic as easily as the spear had pierced the deer. She would never forget that sound as long as she lived. It had danced around her dreams, the few that weren’t nightmares, and hearing it now, in the waking world, was surreal. Her heart still pounded, no longer with fear but with razor-edge anticipation. Lex never thought she would encounter source of that sound again. Never planned for it. Never considered it. Desperately wished for it. Dreaded it. Longed for it. Wavering under the onslaught of her own emotions, Lex slumped against a tree, vision blurring, hands pressing into the rough bark. Her eyes began to confirm what her ears hinted. The spear seemed to move of its own accord, appearing to tug itself out of the deer’s corpse. Lex forced herself to focus, _focus_ , and she saw the air rippling and shimmering around a hulking form. Head swimming, still unsure of what was real, she closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the tree. For a long minute, she concentrated only her breathing. Feeling somewhat more collected, she prepared herself to look again. She told herself that this was nothing more than an exceptionally vivid flashback. That she shouldn’t want so much for it to be real, want so badly to see Scar again. 

 

Lex opened her eyes and let out a quiet, breathy scream. Scar was standing directly in front of her. His broad, muscular frame filled her vision, unquestionably, tangibly real. The world seemed to tilt on its axis and her hand flew up to steady herself on the nearest available surface: his chest. He gave another clicking purr before grabbing her by the shoulder and giving her a rather rough shake. A friendly greeting, even if he wasn’t fully aware of his own strength. At some point Lex’s other hand had taken up its familiar position on her cheek, tracing his marks in her well-worn comfort gesture-- not conscious aware of its irony in this situation. Scar’s hand joined hers on her face for a moment and then touched the twin mark etched on to the front of his mask. That sign recognition and acknowledgment broke through something inside Lex. It took her a moment to realize that she was laughing. 

 

“Y-you’re real,” she said, words tumbling from her lips, “You’re here... You came back...”

 

Scar gave her another shake, gentler this time, and tossed his head with what Lex could only describe as a snort of indignation, as if he were shocked at the idea that he wouldn’t. 

 

“Well. You certainly know how to make an entrance,” Lex said, cocking her head in the direction of the dead deer. He responded with a dry, rustling trill of amusement. Death seemed to surround Scar, both heralding his arrival and spreading in his wake. 

 

“Your sense of humor, though. Kinda morbid,” she said. His answer came in the form of a rapid series of clicks and hisses, which Lex could only assume was his own language. She was slightly embarrassed that she couldn’t understand, when he was clearly able to comprehend her every word. It made her wonder how he’d learned, and how many other languages he understood-- human or otherwise. 

 

Silence rose up between them. For all that Lex had thought about him, she’d never imagined about what to say if she saw him again. A thousand questions swam in her mind, about what he was, where he came from, why he had come to Earth. She licked her lips nervously and looked at him, trying and failing to not be overwhelmed. She’d been this close to him in the pyramid but somehow he seemed even more imposing now, in full daylight, than he had in the darkness of Antarctica. The sun illuminated all the details of his sparse armor, the stains and pits of unimaginable battles, and the grisly trophies he adorned himself with. Small skulls, mostly. None of them looked familiar to Lex. The lines of his body stood out in sharp relief, all the tight, sculpted muscle left mostly exposed by mesh and a small loincloth. Despite the humanoid structure of his masculine frame, his body had an otherworldly quality about it, like the animated statue of some ancient primal god. 

 

Suddenly self-conscious of her staring and very aware of her pounding heart, Lex blurted out, “Who are you? I mean, your name. I call you... Scar, but I know that’s not really your name.”

 

He shook his head slightly, and told her. It sounded to Lex like a lengthy growl of varying pitch, punctuated with sharp snapping sounds. She raised an eyebrow at him. 

 

“Yeah... I hope you won’t be offended if I don’t try to pronounce that,” she laughed nervously, “I think I’ll stick with ‘Scar’.”

 

Another amused trill echoed from behind his mask and he tossed his head in assent. 

 

“Okay, good. And I guess I should add that I’m--”

 

“Lex.”

 

She blinked at Scar in astonishment. From his mouth, her name sounded like a roll of thunder. 

 

“You speak English,” she said incredulously. He vigorously shook his head at that and pointed at her. 

 

“Just _my_ name?” she said. He nodded. Lex didn’t remember ever volunteering her name to him, but could only assume that she had at some point and had forgotten. How else would he know? She quickly answered her own question, realizing that he could’ve been tracking and stalking her here for months, completely unbeknownst to her-- a prospect both thrilling and disturbing. 

 

Lex’s next question was cut off by the quiet hiss of released air pressure. Scar was removing his mask. He unclipped the small hoses on its side, one at a time, and slowly peeled it away to reveal his starkly inhuman face. The tusk-tipped mandibles stretched and flared, fang-rimmed mouth opening with a sound somewhere between a sigh and a cough. Lex peered closer, fascinated, and chided herself for the silliness of her earlier question. O _f course he doesn’t speak English,_ she thought, _he has no lips._

__

His eyes, however, were expressively, eerily human in appearance, even with their striking golden color. They caught Lex’s and her cheeks grew warm at the intensity smoldering in his expression. Scar tugged at her arm and gestured toward the ground. He lowered himself down a moment later, leaning back on his hands, head high and fanged jaws parted as if he were tasting the breeze. Lex arranged herself beside him, rather taken aback at seeing him so relaxed and casual. Despite having heard him laugh and seen him bleed, she thought of him first and foremost as a warrior, immovable and invincible.

 

“So,” Lex said with a small grin askance at him, “Dare I ask what you’re doing here?”

 

Scar brightened at this question and unclipped a netted bag from his hip. He proudly held it up for Lex’s appraisal. Lex’s smile faltered and she swallowed hard upon seeing the polished skulls within it, still fresh enough for the bone to retain a bloody pinkish hue. She immediately regretted asking, knowing that there was only one reason Scar’s kind ever came to Earth. She immediately saw Antarctica again: the gruesome corpses of the drilling team, Weyland’s terrified final moments... Lex inhaled a long, slow breath to steady herself, closing her eyes as she did so. They snapped back open a moment later at Scar’s hot, leathery touch on her cheek. Thankfully, he’d set the bag of skulls aside and she quickly recomposed herself. 

 

Unsure what morbidity was driving her to ask, Lex said, “Where-- where were you, when you--”

She couldn’t finish the sentence, but he understood. His claws ticked against the flattened gauntlet on his forearm-- the piece Lex had seen him detach and use as an explosive. Now he put the device to a more benign use. It projected a detailed hologram of Earth. She chuckled to herself at how childish and archaic human gadgetry seemed by comparison. Scar’s appearance, body and mannerisms made it dangerously easy to forget that he belonged to a race of beings that far outstripped homo sapiens in technological achievement. He manipulated the projection with his hand as if it were a physical object, rotating and zooming in on the Earth. Finally, he tapped a geopolitical border and the outlines of two countries illuminated.

 

“Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Lex identified them, “War zones.”

 

Scar nodded and began speaking in a rapid clicking cadence, accompanied by expansive hand gestures. From what Lex could tell, he was regaling her with details of how exactly he’d come by those skulls. For once she had no particular interest in what he was saying. A desire to know his motives kept pulling at her, though, and she barely stopped herself from asking if his victims been soldiers or civilians, American or Al Qaeda. It was a meaningless question with Scar; she suspected that human political strife was not something he followed terribly closely. It made her wonder, though, what Scar’s own people were like. Did they stake out borders, rally around ideologies, fight to the death amongst themselves? 

 

Scar noticed Lex’s distant expression and paused in his tale. He blinked and tilted his head, puzzled at her lack of interest. He knew that she couldn’t understand his words, but thus far she’d asked questions and worked to decipher his meaning and intent. Now she silent and disengaged. It surprised him; he vividly remembered the kills Lex had made in Antarctica. Kills any hunter would’ve boasted about. He jostled her lightly to regain her attention.

 

“Sorry,” Lex said absently. She hadn’t meant to blatantly ignore him, even if his story wasn’t something she particularly cared to hear about it. In an attempt to draw her into their strange, half-silent version of conversation, Scar pointed to her and pantomimed shooting a gun at a distant target. The implication was unescapable and Lex stalled even harder. Killing Sebastian was one of the most horrifying moments of their whole ordeal. Killing the serpents had been frightening, but she also felt a tinge of pride in that. They were savage animals trying to devour her, and she bested them. Sebastian was a kind and clever man, the one who’d beseeched her to not give up on the expedition in the first place. Even though he had sobbed and begged for Lex to end his life quickly, she couldn’t until she saw something moving inside his chest: the spawn of a serpent about to tear free of his body. She knew Sebastian was doomed then, and a steely determination to _live_ had guided her finger to the trigger. Lex had done what she had to, that was all. Sebastian would’ve suffered a worse fate had she not. There was no joy or thrill in it. Not like Scar’s rather boyish glee in slaughter. 

 

“ _That_ was different,” she snapped, “I had to do that. I had to--”

 

Lex’s voice broke and she stopped. As long as the deed remained unspoken, she could keep it locked away like a bad dream. Discussing it felt tantamount to a confession, even though Scar had watched her do it. Given her the chance to do it, primarily to see if she could. As soon as Lex fired that shot, Scar’s perception of her had shifted. She had done the honorable and courageous thing, instead of fleeing or giving up. In his subsequent hunts on Earth Scar had observed that there were virtually no humans capable of that choice. He’d seen members of stronger species choke in such moments as well. But not Lex. Now Scar sensed her distress, even if he didn’t fully understand its cause, and laid a hand on her cheek. 

 

“That was a mercy-killing,” she said, voice strong again, tinged with haughty accusation, “I _had_ to. I... _we_... would have died otherwise! I didn’t... enjoy it! I don’t kill people _indiscriminately_.”

 

That last word touched a nerve in Scar. He turned on Lex, mandibles flaring in anger. He roared and violently shook his head. Lex gasped in alarm as his claws scraped the side of her head, but she didn’t pull away. He was speaking in a harsh, angry tone. Unsure what exactly she said to cause his outburst, Lex could only watch wide-eyed and murmur an apology. Scar snorted derisively, like the warning of a bull about to charge. Oblivious to whatever discomfort it might cause, he hefted the bag of skulls again before repeating the gun motion and impatiently indicating the weapons on his own body. Her cool, practical mindset was rattled by the forceful display of anger and she struggled to parse through his gestures. She wouldn’t begrudge him his anger if she’d truly offended him, but she’d be damned if he couldn’t make her understand why. His anger had only stirred her curiosity further. She knew a boundary had been crossed and the nature of his boundaries would in turn tell her about his values, culturally and as an individual. And a weaker, quieter part of her mind feared that he would vanish again-- only this time without his respect for and apparent interest in her. 

 

“They were... soldiers. Armed. Like you,” she ventured, determined to understand. He nodded. Lex concluded that that was the sticking point: the implication that he would kill an opponent who wasn’t. An opponent who was weak and unworthy. She voiced this theory and he immediately confirmed it, relaxing visibly when she finally understood.

 

“Is that so?” Lex challenged him as a glaring inconsistency in his claim stuck in her mind, “Then what about Weyland. The old man in the pyramid. He was unarmed. He was _ill_. You killed--”

 

Scar cut her off with another bloodcurdling roar. His fanged maw hovered inches from her face and his eyes flashed. Still Lex faced him, meeting his gaze steadily, her jaw set in a hard line. 

 

“You killed him,” she coldly repeated her accusation. Scar’s mouth snapped shut with an audible _click_ and a snarl rumbled out of him like an engine revving. His entire posture was tense and his hands flexed compulsively. Lex could sense a wave of wrath rising inside him. Everything in his posture radiated tight, strained control. Again he activated the projector on his gauntlet, this time displaying a video clip. It was in first person, showing exactly what Scar had seen through the eyes of his mask. Lex sucked in a hissing breath at the sight of that pyramid again: not even infrared made it less real and awful. She watched two heat blobs retreat around a corridor while a third lay crumpled on the stairs. Herself and Sebastian fleeing. Weyland left behind. Lex knew what was coming.

 

“I don’t want to see this,” she said as firmly as she could muster. Scar issued a short barking command and tightened his claws against her face. Now the projection showed Scar’s massive hand reaching down to grasp Weyland’s neck and hoist him into the air. The view shifted as Scar swapped through various light spectrums in the mask’s settings. Lex gasped upon seeing a view that was, apparently, x-ray: Weyland’s skeleton showed clear as day. The view in the projection panned downward to reveal a tangled mass of tumors clogging the man’s chest. Scar’s hand immediately opened, dropping Weyland, and he turned away. Scar swiftly shut off the projection then; only the first part of the confrontation with Weyland was necessary to illustrate his point. 

 

Stunned, Lex stared at the space the projection had once occupied. Finding her voice, she said, “You let him go. Because he was sick.”

 

The tempest behind Scar’s eyes subsided. His touch relaxed from a near-painful grip to a caress. His thumb rubbed slowly back and forth across her cheek. Lex exhaled a long breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Her time away from Scar had softened her perception of his role in the Antarctica violence, and she’d been content to let herself fall into ignorance-- to see an idealization instead of seeing him as he was. He _was_ a dangerous extraterrestrial who played by a set of rules Lex had only barely begun to comprehend. But the rules existed. He followed them and was bound by them. He had a deeply engrained, unshakeable sense of honor-- easily insulted and quickly defended. And fortunately, Lex realized, easily mollified as well. 

 

In the silence that followed, Scar began to explore her facial features with his hand. He lingered on his marks on her cheek before tracing along her jawline, running his claws lightly over her forehead and, mindful, of his claws near her eyes, down the sides of her nose. It occurred to her for the first time that, to him, her face was bizarre and alien. She leaned into the touch, inviting him to continue. His fingertips brushed across her mouth and she gave a shaky gasp. Intrigued by the reaction, he slipped the tip of his index finger between her parted lips. He pressed against the blunt edge of her teeth and she bit down lightly. Her tongue flicked against his skin. Emboldened, Lex impulsively reached up and grasped one of the long tendrils growing from his head. She’d been curious about those; they clearly weren’t hair, and now she could feel that they were fleshy appendages in their own right. Smooth, soft almost. And, apparently, capable of sensation, if Scar’s loud purr was any indication. She squeezed lightly and slid her hand down the full length of the tendril. After giving it a light tug, she repeated the motion on another. His purring intensified and a visible shudder ran through his powerful frame. The effect of her touches was obvious. The logical course of action would be to stop now lest she find herself in a situation she wasn’t prepared to deal with. Hastiness and recklessness accomplished nothing; she knew from her years of experience rock climbing that they could get one killed. That same diligence carried into all other areas of her life. 

 

Now her reservations seemed hazy, distant and irrelevant, almost as if she were drunk. Perhaps it was only the effects of a long year of isolation and loneliness. But that sound Scar made set her pulse racing, his hand hot against her face, the texture of his skin rough and intriguing. His statuesque body was so close to her own and she eyed the variations in color and texture on his skin, the way it mottled from yellowish-tan to dark brown, smooth in some places and pebbled in others, the way it stretched taut over his musculature. Instead of pulling away, she reached up with her free hand and began to stroke the tendrils on the other side of his head. 

 

“Lex,” Scar said, taking hold of her chin and tilting her face up. His deep-set eyes searched her expression, inquisitive. He cocked his head to the side, asking permission for things he couldn’t express-- just as he had one year ago, when he’d marked her with the serpent’s claw. There was no doubt in Lex’s mind about what he was asking now. She couldn’t even begin to think about what this might mean for herself in the long term, or what it meant to him. She could only think of right now, of him. She knew his presence here, exactly one year later, was not a coincidence. It was a culmination of what they had shared and a celebration of their survival-- survival neither could have accomplished alone. 

 

Lex looked up at him, took a breath and nodded. 

 

**_TBC_ **

**_  
_ **


	3. Chapter 3

Scar purred and hooked his free arm around Lex’s waist. She squeaked in surprise as he hauled her onto his lap without a trace of effort. It was startling to be this close to him; his body was hard and solid, utterly unyielding. It made her very aware of the size and strength difference between them. The only other humans who’d been this close to him had been butchered. But Lex had always loved an adrenaline rush. In the past she’d found them dangling from cliffs hundreds of feet in the air-- now she was about to surrender completely to a being who could easily rip her in two. It added a sharpened edge to her excitement. Scar wrapped his massive hands around her waist and roughly pulled her chest flush against his. Her hands wound their way back into the tendrils on his head, exploring the almost-familiar skin-like smoothness of them. She toyed with the little metal rings adorning them before grabbing them near the base and pulling. The reaction was immediate. Scar growled, his breath quickening. Encouraged by his responsiveness, Lex leaned forward and brushed her lips along the side of his lower mandible. He tensed at the foreign sensation of her soft human mouth. Undeterred, she pressed open-mouthed kisses up the side of his head, nearing the roots of the tendrils. His claws plucked beneath the hem of her shirt before he slowly, teasingly, eased his hands beneath it. They didn’t wander further. He simply held her in place with a firm grasp. His hot, rough hands on her bare skin stoked something long-dormant inside her, like embers flaring to life. 

 

It was clear he was letting her take the lead; sitting docilely while she touched, permitting her to explore however she saw fit, his own body a picture of iron discipline and self-control. She suspected that this was _not_ a typical custom among his own people and was humbled that he was willing to deny his own impulses for the sake of her comfort. But she found herself craving exactly what he was holding back. She’d seen him fighting, the raw power in his movements, muscles bunching and rippling with exertion. The single-minded focus with which he pursued his prey. The intense passion that motivated him and that he wielded as expertly as a weapon. Lex could feel it just below the surface in the tense lines of his body as he restrained himself. She smirked; she’d see how long he could keep _that_ up. She ran her tongue along the base of the tendrils, up the side of his head to the crown. He trembled beneath her, his exhalations laced with soft snarls. Lex curled her tongue around a tendril and sucked before sinking her teeth into it. Scar growled again, much louder, and his hips rocked up. His claws raked over the soft flesh of her belly, not hard enough to break skin but plenty hard enough to leave her squirming from the sting. Lex moaned and arched against him, her fingers digging in the back of his skull, grabbing bunches of tendrils and yanking. Sparks raced down Lex’s spine at this sudden intensity from him. His claws hurt, but she found that she didn’t particularly mind. It was the natural action for him, what desire compelled him to do. It was a sensual reminder of what he was capable of. That he was dangerous. 

 

The last shreds of Lex’s reservation were falling away. She moved greedily against him, working her mouth along the ridge of his skull, then down the side of his face, and along his flaring mandibles. His skin was smooth and dry, thick and textured like a reptile’s. Scar was equally fascinated as he rubbed his hands back and forth across her abdomen, quickly growing bolder and sliding upward toward her breasts. He huffed in frustration when he encountered the fabric of her underwear. He hooked his claws into it, scratching her in the process, and began to twist. Realizing what he was about to do, Lex hastily drew back and pulled off her t-shirt and sports bra. Her nervousness returned now that she was exposed in front of him. Her clothes offered no real protection whatsoever, but they allowed her an illusion of detachment and propriety over her body. Now, as Scar hungrily eyed her bare chest, she knew there was no turning back. A part of her was still afraid of how much she wanted this. 

 

Scar scattered her thoughts when he grabbed her upper arm and pulled her close again. He positioned her on his lap and ran his hands over her breasts. Lex’s eyelids fluttered and her jaw fell slack. The unique texture of his skin was electrifying. He repeated the touch, this time lingering on her hard nipples. He pinched them between his claws until she cried out, then slowly pulled forward, relishing the way her entire body followed the movement and the control he had over her. His thigh had worked its way up between hers and ground against him without conscious thought, her body already primed and aching for more. Not wanting to rush, however, she lifted herself away from his thigh and onto her knees. She kissed the mark etched onto his forehead and wrapped her arms around him. He reciprocated the gesture and she was content for the moment to simply hold and be held. To feel, for once since her return from Antarctica, something other than a bleak surrender to isolation. There was no dispelling the trauma of their shared experience in the pyramid, but in Scar’s presence Lex could finally lay down her burden of secrets. She let herself fall completely relaxed and slack in his arms. He bore her weight easily. 

 

“I’m glad you came here, Scar,” Lex murmured. He squeezed her tightly and purred deep in his chest. He rubbed his face against her in an affectionate and vaguely feline gesture, and she gasped when his fangs skimmed over a nipple. He mouthed across her breasts, biting just hard enough that she could feel her flesh yielding under those razor-like points. The short tusks on his mandibles trailed burning lines over her skin. Altogether the sensation was exhilaratingly strange, unlike anything she had experienced before. One of his claws wandered slowly down her spine, applying increasing force as it moved lower. His other hand worked down the curve of her waist and hip in a series of rough squeezes. When he encountered the fabric of her jeans instead of more soft skin, he gave an outright snarl of frustration and yanked hard enough to throw her off balance. 

 

Lex yelped in surprise and caught herself on Scar’s shoulders. With trembling hands she tugged at the laces of her hiking boots. She kicked them off and impatiently shimmied out of her jeans and panties. This time she was back on Scar’s lap before he could grab her, legs winding around his waist. Her hands skimmed over his well-defined pectorals only to encounter the thin mesh of his camouflage. In a mirror of his earlier demand, she plucked impatiently at the thin wires, attempting to thread her fingers through them. He jabbed at the controls on his gauntlet and, to Lex’s surprise, the mesh parted along an invisible central seam and melted away from his skin, retracting back into his armor. She slid her hands over his bared chest at an unhurried pace, drinking in the chiseled lines of his frame, mapping out the varying textures of his skin. She stroked up over his broad shoulders and traced along a prominent green vein in his bicep. Moving to his sides, she dragged her nails over the ridges of his obliques.

 

“God, you have an incredible body,” she panted. Pleased with her adoration, Scar grabbed her rear with both hands and gave it a hard squeeze before dipping his claws lower between her thighs. He groaned at how wet she was, his finger slipping easily along her swollen labia. Lex arched her back and murmured some incoherent encouragement. She pressed a hand firmly against his sculpted abdominal muscles. They tensed as she slid her hand lower. When her fingertips brushed the prominent bulge in his loincloth, Scar grabbed her wrist and held her there. Lex began to rub him through the small covering. A fresh jolt of adrenaline raced through her as she gauged how big he was. He fumbled with a fastening on the waistband; a moment later the leather slipped to one side and his rock hard erection throbbed against Lex’s hand. She gasped at the sight of it, intimidated in spite of herself, and wrapped a tentative hand around it. Scar watched her reaction through slitted eyes, growling softly in pleasure. He rocked his hips up, encouraging her. Lex watched raptly as her small brown fist slid slowly up and down the length. She could feel his pulse racing through the greenish veins that stood out clearly on the shaft. The differentiation in his skin texture continued even here, as the underside was smooth and the top pebbled. Lex bit her lip and moaned, unable to think of anything except how good that would feel inside her. Without warning Scar pushed two fingers inside Lex, shuddering in anticipation at how tight she was. He moved them slowly in and out, setting a steady, languid rhythm that gave her ample time to adjust. Lex moved with him, adjusting her grip so the tip of his cock brushed over her clitoris. She moaned at every smooth glide of his fingers. They seemed to fill her so completely, and other parts of him were thicker yet. Her body tensed in nervous anticipation and she wondered for a brief moment if he would fit at all. 

 

As if he could sense the shift in her mood, Scar abruptly withdrew his fingers. Lex whimpered at the loss, then gasped at the sudden pressure against her entrance. She felt like she was teetering on the edge of a precipice with the ground under her feet rapidly crumbling. This was her last chance to back out, to say no. Even after all they’d done together, this final step felt more like a leap of faith. Then again, so had been everything with him. She’d already made the leap one year ago, when she’d called out to him in the Antarctic tunnels. Lex closed her eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly out her mouth. When she looked up, she met Scar’s gaze. His eyes glowed a deeper gold hue like twin fires in the depths of a cavern. His mouth hung open and he breathed heavily; offhandedly, Lex realized that this was the first time she’d ever seen him show signs of physical exertion. He was waiting for her, letting her make the final choice. 

 

And made her choice she had. Willing her muscles to relax, Lex pressed her hips down.    She clenched her teeth against the stinging stretch as her body struggled to accommodate him. She reached between her legs and spread herself, then gave a long, breathy moan as the head of his cock finally slipped inside. Slowly, she eased herself further down his shaft. Scar’s head lolled back and his mandibles flared widely. Lex felt more than heard the seismic, rumbling purr building within him. He grabbed her hips painfully tight and guided her down until he was fully seated inside her. Lex’s mouth gaped in a silent scream. Once he was inside the pain had faded, but she still felt over-stuffed, completely skewered, filled in ways she didn’t even know she could be. Scar saved her the trouble of having to move, at least, as he lifted her up until he nearly slipped out of her, then slowly lowered her back down. They groaned in unison at the delicious friction. Lex was relieved that he’d taken the lead; she wasn’t sure she’d even be able to hold herself upright. The roughness of his skin, the heat radiating from him, his strong, rapid pulse all seemed amplified inside her. He moved her again, faster this time, snapping his hips up to meet her. Lex cried out at the sudden forcefulness, her arms wrapping around his neck, hands fisting in the tendrils at the base of his skull. Her sensitive nipples brushed against the roughness of his chest as she moved. 

 

Scar growled and increased his pace. He slammed her down on his cock, relishing her shrill cries and the way her tiny hands clung to him. Lex writhed against him, matching his rhythm with her hips. Despite her active participation, Lex had never felt so wonderfully helpless in her entire life. Scar was overwhelming, surrounding her and within her, like some unstoppable force of nature. She surrendered to him utterly, letting the tidal waves of sensation crash through her. Practically sobbing from the intensity of it, she begged him in incoherent whimpers to do it harder, faster, to _please don’t stop!_  

 

Scar latched his mouth onto the juncture of her neck and shoulder, biting down hard while the sharp tusks on his mandibles scraped down the length of her throat. Lex yelped at the unexpected flare of pain. While Scar still hadn’t broken skin, he was dangerously close, and a spike of fear coursed through her. There was no real conscious thought accompanying it though, and it only added to the overwhelming sensory cocktail of pain and pleasure. Lex found the distinction between the two growing hazy; all she knew is that she needed more, she needed him so badly, she was so close... 

 

Lex ground down hard on his next thrust and he held her there, his entire length seated deep inside her. Lex’s body twitched around him, hips rocking, and suddenly it was too much, it was perfect, and she came hard, crying out his name as she slumped forward against his chest. Scar had intended to hold out longer, to watch her come over and over again, but the amazing feeling of her hot, soft inner walls clamping down on his cock like a fist caught him off guard. He roared as much with surprise as with ecstasy as his pleasure overtook him. He raked his claws across Lex’s back in an intimate marking. She moaned again at the unexpected feeling of almost-painful heat inside her as he came. 

 

Lex couldn’t bring herself to move for a long time after. Her back stung where he’d clawed her. She suspected she was bleeding a little, but wasn’t bothered by it. Every time she lay down, stood in the shower or dressed herself she’d feel those marks, and think of him. Scar brushed his fingertips over the scratches and purred, smearing the few droplets of warm blood on her skin. He repositioned her as his softening cock slipped out of her, and rumbled something deep and velvety in his own language. The movement caused some of his fluid to drip back down her inner thigh, and Lex’s ever-pragmatic mind had a moment of worry as it dawned on her that she’d just had unprotected sex. _With an_ alien, _whose genetic structure is entirely different,_ she reminded herself, and nearly laughed at her own absurdity. Instead she sighed, thoroughly satisfied, and stroked along the lower edge of his mandible. 

 

“You just keep getting better and better, don’t you?” she said, smiling, “You repeatedly save my life, you come back for me, you give me the best orgasm I’ve had in... well, ever...”

 

He answered with one of his dry rustling trills of amusement and his eyes glinted mischievously. Something in his mien was decidedly smug, if Lex didn’t know better. She laughed and shook her head before nestling against his chest. She caught herself drowsing and was tempted to fall asleep, knowing that there was no safer place in the entire universe. She couldn’t though, with the painful reality of their situation looming over her head. There was no way Scar could stay on Earth; Lex didn’t even bother asking. But if he’d come here once, perhaps he could return. 

 

“So,” she ventured cautiously, once again trying very hard to not get her hopes up, “ How often do you come to Earth?”

 

Scar trilled, took hold of her chin and looked directly into her eyes. He spoke again, and Lex contained irritation at herself for not being able to understand him. He activated the computer on his gauntlet; this time it showed a projection of Earth’s moon. Cycling through its different phases, he paused when the full moon was displayed and gestured to it. 

 

“When the moon is full,” Lex said. She supposed it would be easy for him to come here regularly; Earth was a legitimate hunting ground for his kind and, uncomfortable as the thought made her, Scar seemed to enjoy hunting humans. She wondered what his own world was like and if she would ever get to see it. 

 

“Scar,” she said suddenly, struck with an idea, “When you return could you bring me some... books?” --she paused, uncertain, wondering if printed paper seemed comically primitive to him-- “Or whatever, you know, you use for learning things?”

 

He seemed startled by her request, and she added, “I want to understand you. I mean, it’s kind of unfair that you can understand everything _I_ say, when I have no clue what _you_ are saying.”

 

Scar laughed and studied her intently, head cocked to the side as he regarded her with open admiration and interest. Of all the things he’d come to Earth prepared for, finding a  warrior, an equal, had not been one of them. He knew that the human population numbered in multiple billions and that those multitudes were nothing more than prey. How, then, had chance allowed this _one_ \-- no doubt the only one-- who was something more than that, to cross his path? Though he could understand Lex’s words, he remained baffled by the seeming polar opposites that coexisted within her. She was so strong, but so delicate. Courageous, but fragile. Stubborn, but yielding. He nodded his assent to her request and brushed his mandibles lightly over the mark on her cheek. 

 

Lex knew Scar would leave soon, and she would once more be alone with her memories from Antarctica. He couldn’t banish them-- only time could accomplish that-- but his company had given her new strength to face them. And time itself no longer seemed like an endless grey tunnel to nowhere; she had something to look forward to, something with which to mark the passing of time other than her escape from that frozen hell. Lex held him tighter, already counting the days until the next full moon. 


End file.
